Missouri School Counselor
Missouri school counselors work with students from pre-K through 12th grade. The state projects about 730 job openings a year from 2024 to 2034, and the May 2025 median wage is $58,040. Missouri DESE issues school counselor certification, and requirements depend on your certification pathway. Seven CACREP-accredited programs in the state offer a master’s in school counseling.
Missouri Links
About 8,890 Missourians work as educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, the federal category that includes school counselors, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2025). They work in districts from Kansas City and St. Louis to small rural systems, and the state runs its own counseling model through DESE. Missouri DESE issues school counselor certification, and what you’ll need depends on the pathway you take. For the details, see the Missouri school counselor certification page.
What School Counselors Do in Missouri
Missouri’s comprehensive school counseling program centers on three areas: academic development, career development, and intrapersonal and interpersonal growth. That framework underpins Missouri DESE’s school counseling program, delivered through classroom lessons, individual student planning, and responsive services. In practice, that means counselors show up for students in a wide range of situations, often in the same afternoon.
Take a high school counselor in St. Louis. One period, she’s helping a junior map out community college options after he decided a four-year university isn’t the right fit. Next, she’s meeting with a teacher about a ninth-grader who’s been withdrawn since winter break. By the end of the day, she leads a small-group session on conflict resolution for a group of ninth-graders. That’s a typical Tuesday.
Missouri’s model also connects counselors to families. That means meeting with parents, coordinating with administrators, and sometimes bringing in outside community resources when a student needs more than the school can provide.
Caseloads are the hard part. A counselor responsible for several hundred students can’t see each one often, so the job rewards people who can prioritize, build systems, and reach students through classroom lessons and groups, not just one-on-one meetings.
Job Outlook in Missouri
Missouri projects about 730 openings a year for school and career counselors from 2024 to 2034, according to the state’s Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC). Most of those openings come from counselors retiring or leaving the field, not from new positions. Total employment is projected to rise 4.2% over that decade, close to the 3.5% projected nationally for the same occupation and period.
What that means for you: openings come up every year across the state. Kansas City and St. Louis have the most counselor jobs. Rural districts are part of the picture too, and some actively recruit to fill open positions. Pay is the trade-off, and it’s covered below.
School Counselor Salary in Missouri
Missouri school counselors earned a median of $58,040 in May 2025, about $6,300 below the national median of $64,330, according to BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. These figures cover the federal category for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, which includes some workers outside K-12 schools. Salaries vary by district, experience, and metro area.
| Percentile | Annual Salary |
|---|---|
| 10th | $41,890 |
| 25th | $47,620 |
| Median (50th) | $58,040 |
| 75th | $65,150 |
| 90th | $78,740 |
Among the listed metropolitan areas, Kansas City and St. Louis had the highest median salaries in May 2025, both around $60,000. Their figures cover the full metro areas, including the Kansas and Illinois sides. Columbia and Joplin sit closer to $51,000.
| Metro Area | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Kansas City, MO-KS | $60,820 |
| St. Louis, MO-IL | $60,160 |
| Jefferson City, MO | $55,520 |
| Springfield, MO | $53,720 |
| Columbia, MO | $51,260 |
| Joplin, MO-KS | $51,040 |
CACREP-Accredited School Counseling Programs in Missouri
Seven Missouri universities offer CACREP-accredited school counseling master’s programs. The table lists five of them in order of size, measured by master’s graduates reported to the federal IPEDS survey, which tells you how big a program is, not how good it is.
| Institution | City | Degree | Accredited Through | Master’s Graduates (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Missouri State University | Springfield | M.S. | March 31, 2032 | 56 |
| University of Missouri – St. Louis | St. Louis | M.Ed. | October 31, 2033 | 52 |
| Missouri Baptist University | St. Louis | M.A. | August 31, 2027 | 24 |
| Southeast Missouri State University | Cape Girardeau | M.A. | October 31, 2030 | 15 |
| Evangel University | Springfield | M.S. | October 31, 2027 | 9 |
Truman State University in Kirksville is also CACREP-accredited, through March 31, 2033. The University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg is CACREP-accredited through October 31, 2034. Neither reports graduates under the federal code used here, so both are listed separately rather than placed in the size order.
Three programs carry a CACREP status beyond plain accreditation. Evangel University is Accredited (Reaffirmation in Process) through October 31, 2027. Missouri Baptist University is Accredited (Progress Report Required) through August 31, 2027. The University of Central Missouri is Accredited (Progress Report Required) through October 31, 2034.
Missouri also approves some school counseling programs that don’t hold CACREP accreditation. If a program isn’t on this list, check DESE’s directory of approved educator preparation programs to see whether it leads to Missouri certification.
CACREP accreditation does not automatically establish eligibility for Missouri school counselor certification. Confirm that your program meets Missouri DESE requirements before enrolling.
How this table was built. Every program here is accredited by CACREP as a School Counseling program, verified against the CACREP register on September 30, 2026. Any program whose CACREP status shows a teach-out, closure, show-cause or withdrawal is excluded, because a reader cannot reliably enroll in it. Programs are ordered by the number of master’s graduates each university reported to the federal IPEDS survey for 2023 under CIP code 13.1101, which measures size, not quality. That count covers the whole university, so a school running more than one school counseling master’s reports them together, and a low count can mean some graduates are reported under a different code. Treat the order as a rough guide to size rather than a ranking. Where a university reports no graduates under that code we name it below the table rather than place it in the order. CACREP accreditation is not the same as state approval: check the Missouri requirements for school counselor certification before you enroll.
Missouri updated its K-12 school counseling standards in 2025
DESE issued updated K-12 Missouri School Counseling Learning Standards in a March 13, 2025 memo (OCCR-25-003). The standards are organized around three areas: academic development, career development, and intrapersonal and interpersonal development. If you’re training to work in a Missouri school, these are the standards DESE’s school counseling curriculum resources now use.
- Steady openings: Missouri projects about 730 school and career counselor openings a year from 2024 to 2034, mostly replacing counselors who leave.
- Pay below the national median: The May 2025 median is $58,040, about $6,300 under the national $64,330, with Kansas City and St. Louis near $60,000.
- Seven accredited programs: Missouri has seven CACREP-accredited school counseling master’s programs, in St. Louis, Springfield, Cape Girardeau, Kirksville and Warrensburg.
- Updated state standards: DESE issued updated K-12 school counseling learning standards in March 2025, built around academic, career, and intrapersonal and interpersonal development.
- Wide-ranging days: Counselors support students academically, socially, and emotionally, often all three in the same afternoon.
Once you’ve narrowed your program list, the next step is mapping out the degree, fieldwork, and certification timeline for Missouri.
